Hi all,
I just joined your group and hope I'm not stumbling into an old thread here. My search turned up empty. Anyway, I'm looking at a carved bass that is at least 50 years old and has fallen into disrepair after its owner died in 1972. His widow is finally ready to part with it.

Since it needs at least $2k in repairs and still will be short of beautiful I thought I would see if you folks could help with my decision. I've been told it is probably a "German factory bass" that could have been made anywhere from the 1920 to (perhaps more likely) the 1950 time frame.

One old posting I found on talkbass suggested Rauner was a fictitious name put on some Wilfers and Paesold (Hoffner) basses imported into California, which is where this was likely originally purchased.